It was his 17th career pole, bringing the English rider up to fourth in the all-time pole position winners list, tied with former WSBK Champion Doug Polen. After seeing his time deleted as it was completed under a red flag situation, Sykes went back on track and broke into the 1:45 by setting the new best lap for the track in 1:45.981.

The red flag was waved following the heavy crash by Sykes’ team mate Loriz Baz, who fell at the downhill section leading to turn 18 while his ZX-10R tumbled the grass, and over the air-fence, to eventually land back on track, with a good amount of oil and fuel laid down.

Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) has again showed a very good synergy with his CBR1000RR at Imola by finishing second ahead of an impressive Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing Aprilia), who stormed to third place in his last quick-lap attempt. Works Aprilia riders Sylvain Guintoli and Eugene Laverty finished fourth and fifth, respectively, followed by Leon Camier (FIXI Crescent Suzuki), Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet) and Ayrton Badovini (Team Ducati Alstare).

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